Greater New Orleans

Two-sport athletes flourish at LSU

For all the time Les Miles spent in a three-point stance when he was part of Michigan's offensive line, he would have gladly also crouched behind home plate for the Wolverines during spring, if only he'd been better at baseball.

Michael DeMocker/The Times-PicayuneLes Miles watches running back Spencer Ware break a long run during the LSU spring football game at Tiger Stadium on April 9.

So when the LSU football coach's players want to take up a second sport during the spring semester, Miles encourages it.

During his six seasons in charge of the Tigers' football program, Miles has had eight two-sport regulars on his roster, the latest being running back Spencer Ware, also a freshman reserve outfielder on LSU's baseball team.

"I wished I was good enough to catch for Michigan. I would have loved to," recalled Miles, who also trained with the Michigan wrestling team. "I've always enjoyed those guys that play all kinds of sports, all times of the year. They love to compete. There's some greater characteristics to those guys than there are with one-sport guys."

LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri said he appreciates the pressure on high-profile college football coaches to win and doesn't begrudge those who refuse to allow their own scholarship athletes to suit up for other teams. Mainieri said that when he coached at Notre Dame, he and then football coach Bob Davie got along well, but Davie never let his play baseball for the Irish.

Miles, however, has built a track record of allowing star players on his football teams pursue other sports not just at LSU, but also during his previous head coaching gig at Oklahoma State. One of Miles' quarterbacks at OSU was Josh Fields, now a pro baseball player in the Colorado Rockies organization who has spent parts of the last five seasons with the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals.

More recently, Miles' approach allowed former LSU receiver Jared Mitchell and former safety Chad Jones to accomplish the rare feat of winning national titles in both football (2007) and baseball (2009).

"I've never had a football coach that I've worked with that's been more cooperative than Les Miles," said Mainieri, whose coaching stops also included the Air Force Academy. "Some players express to him that playing two sports is a very important part of their decision. Some coaches will say whatever it takes to get them to come to their school, but Les is a man of his word. If he told then that he would let them play baseball, he lets them play baseball and he doesn't make them feel guilty about it."

The growing number of two-sport athletes who've flourished at LSU has made Baton Rouge an attractive destination for college football prospects looking to follow the lead of some of the more renowned two-sport athletes of the past few decades, such as Auburn's Bo Jackson and Florida State's Deion Sanders.

That was the case with Ware.

"I felt like I needed to let all of the coaches that were recruiting me know that being a two-sport athlete was my dream," said Ware, a freshman. "Some of them were pretty iffy about it. Some of them were pretty open.

"Some schools, they had proof," Ware continued. "With coach Miles and LSU, I was able to see Chad Jones and Jared Mitchell. I felt like his word was credible, so that's what I went with."

While Miles wants his recruits to establish themselves in football first, there have been cases when he's allowed an athlete's other sport to gradually take priority.

Kick returner and running back Trindon Holliday, who also ran track at LSU, was permitted to miss spring football in 2008, when he was trying to make the U.S. Olympic team as a sprinter.

Mitchell, now playing in the Chicago White Sox minor league system, was allowed to miss spring football as a junior in 2009 to focus on baseball. And later that season, when Mitchell, a starting outfielder, and Jones, a left-handed reliever and reserve outfielder, went to the College World Series, Miles traveled to Omaha, Neb., to root them on.

"It all depends on how willing the coaches are to work with each other, and obviously, different places you go, the relationships aren't as great," Mitchell said. "So the guys that come (to LSU) like myself and Spencer and Chad were fortunate to have two coaches with a great relationship. That's what it really takes."

The philosophy supporting multi-sport athletes also trickles down from the top at LSU.

"I think it's really important. I really try to foster it," said Athletic Director Joe Alleva, who played both football and baseball at Lehigh.

Alleva added that he took the same approach when he was Duke's A.D. and thought that, if done the right way, it can help with recruiting.

"Kids that have been used to playing two sports want to still have the opportunity to keep doing that, and at a lot of schools, they don't have that opportunity," Alleva said. "It all comes down to the football coach because most of these athletes are on football scholarships. If the football coach says no, then the answer's no."

Ware, who could be at the top of the Tigers' depth chart at running back next fall after carrying 10 times for 102 yards in the Cotton Bowl last January, missed part of the current baseball season for spring football. He has since returned to the baseball team for his first season with the squad, appearing in more than 20 games and starting 10.

While Ware has struggled at the plate in his first season, Mainieri likes his mental approach and his potential, adding that he might be able to compete for a starting outfield spot in 2012.

"When I was watching the Cotton Bowl at my home, I said with each passing carry, 'This kid is moving up the depth chart on the baseball team,'" Mainieri recalled. "I think athletes are athletes and winners are winners. They find a way to get it done. Spencer brings that hard-nosed mentality to the team."